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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28430613">ouroboros</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/krakenindisguise/pseuds/krakenindisguise'>krakenindisguise</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hannibal (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Gore, Dom Hannibal Lecter, Dom/sub Undertones, FBI Agent Will Graham, Graphic Description of Corpses, Hannibal Lecter is a Cannibal, Hannibal Lecter is the Chesapeake Ripper, M/M, Safe Sane and Consensual, Sub Will Graham, Undercover, Will Graham Knows</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:54:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28430613</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/krakenindisguise/pseuds/krakenindisguise</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>the story of how will graham got beat at his own game, and how hannibal lecter gave up reigning in hell for a day in eden with the curly haired boy with bright blue eyes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>ouroboros</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>HELLO!! this is my first hannigram work so I feel extremely nervous and excited. I hope you'll like it and stick around to see where the story goes :) English is not my first language so I apologize in advance if something doesn’t make sense… comments and suggestions are more than welcome, I’d really like to know what you think!! </p><p>I'm gonna add more tags as we go, I don’t wanna spoil the whole thing from the start. SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check the tags and read the notes before every update, I'll make sure to make an explanation for anything that might be disturbing, too graphic or triggering at the beginning of every chapter.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Hannibal Lecter, was the kind of the danger that your parents warned you to look out for. You wouldn’t even know he is the </span> <em><span class="s2">danger </span></em> <span class="s1">unless you come real close, unless it’s </span> <span class="s2">too late</span> <span class="s1">. The person suit he was wearing was almost too real to camouflage the man-eater underneath it and let someone believe that he was a regular man. But the crime scene in front of Will Graham’s eyes strongly suggested otherwise.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">It was downright sickening, there was nowhere to run from the coppery smell of half-dried blood that stained nearly every available surface it could splash on and the place was reeking of </span> <em><span class="s2">death</span></em> <span class="s1">.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Andrew Caldwell, an independent medical examiner, was sitting next to </span> <em><span class="s2">his </span></em> <span class="s1">lower body in an empty school bus, with only a string of his own intestines binding the two parts of his body together. His skin has started to turn into a cold shade of blue and his lifeless, almost white eyes were staring out the window.</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’That’s him.’’</span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Will has seen Jack angry before. He saw him yelling, he saw him chiding people for not doing their work good enough, he saw him cussing a blue streak when they were on their way back to the autopsy room. But he’s never seen him like </span> <em><span class="s2">this </span></em> <span class="s1">before.</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Jack Crawford was a man who lived his rage to its fullest to feel in control, to ground himself to the moment. Anger helped him portray that unshakeable authority to keep the people under his command in line. Anger helped him ban other feelings get into the way so that he wouldn’t take cases personally more than necessary.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">But not this time. He wasn’t yelling, he wasn’t ordering around. He was staying suspiciously silent and dreadfully calm.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’Who?’’ Will asked while pushing his glasses up to their place. Beverly, Zeller and Price looked up from where they crouched down to examine the scene expectantly.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’The Chesapeake Ripper.’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The ride back to the bureau was uncomfortably silent, Will didn’t dare to ask any further questions and Jack seemed to appreciate it.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’What do we have?’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’An artist, if you ask me.’’ Jack shoot Beverly a look that made her shut right up.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Lifeless body, or parts in that case, of Andrew Caldwell was already on a steel table when they arrived the autopsy room. Examined, profiled and ready for further investigations.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’We examined the way he was cut into two, and it’s perfectly safe to say that it was done professionally.’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’Professionally? As in on the medical grounds?’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Will tilted his head in curiosity, others were looking at Jack like they already knew where this conversation was going. Price sighed and nodded.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’Yes. Meaning that the person who did this is very skilled in anatomy and surgery.’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Jack tensed, his hands twitching by his sides in anticipation, and leaned in with a glint in his eyes that Will couldn’t quite put his finger on.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’Meaning that the killer is a doctor, a surgeon?’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Beverly took a step forward and removed the cloth covering Andrew’s upper body, sticking her hand inside to crack his chest a bit more open for them to see the empty space where his heart should be.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’And his kidney and heart was taken.’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They were watching Jack curiously as the man stood still for a moment before turning on his heels to leave the room. He slammed the door so hard that the whole ground under their feet shook with its force and his voice roared through the whole hall.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’Hannibal fucking Lecter.’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  
</p>
<hr/><p class="p1">
  
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’Are you sure? Not that we have enough evidence to accuse him with something that serious.’’</span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">‘’Yes Will, I am sure that Hannibal Lecter </span> <em><span class="s2">is </span></em> <span class="s1">The Chesapeake Ripper. He was the one who killed Miriam Lass, Jeremy Olmstead and now Andrew Caldwell among many other innocent people.’’</span></p><p class="p1"><em><span class="s2">Miriam Lass</span></em> <span class="s1">. Of course it was about <em>her</em>. Will wasn’t a cruel asshole, he didn’t blame Jack for mourning and feeling guilty. He wouldn’t understand what it felt like, he never had anyone under his command, never had anyone he had to take responsibility for. Other than his seven dogs. Jack was feeling guilty because he thought he dragged Miriam right into this. He thought that making her look into the Ripper was what got her killed. For Jack, everything that has gone wrong in Miriam Lass case was </span> <em><span class="s2">his</span></em> <span class="s1"> fault. He got a trainee under his command killed because of his ambition and sense of duty.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">The reason why he was so invested in this case was </span><span class="s2"><em>revenge</em>. </span><span class="s1">He wanted to catch the Ripper, to be</span><em><span class="s2"> forgiven</span></em><span class="s1">.</span> <span class="s1">He wanted to sleep with a clear conscience when he went to bed at night, without being haunted by Miriam Lass’ corpse which he never got to find. </span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">But Jack was being unreasonable now and it was very uncharacteristic of him. They couldn’t just bang on Hannibal Lecter’s door and impeach him for the mass murders without </span> <em><span class="s2">solid</span></em> <span class="s1"> evidence. The doctor was a very careful man, he seemed to be very meticulous about his work; whether it be a therapy session or an organ harvest. Will supposed he would have a very strong lawyer in his contact list, and a very clean criminal record that led to no suspicions.</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Will shook his head in incomprehension. He watched his boss getting up from his seat to walk across the room for the ‘’Lecter Board’’.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’We can’t be sure, Jack. You said you couldn’t even find Miriam’s body, you’re not sure she was killed by the Ripper-‘’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’Lecter.’’ It took all the power in Will’s being to not to roll his eyes.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’by Hannibal Lecter.’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">When all he got in return was nothing but silence, he sighed and crossed the room to join Jack in front of the board. It was covered with pictures of crime scenes, pictures of the victims and their background information; there was a map underneath it, the cases were pinned to the places they happened with tiny yellow pins and were connected with each other with a single red thread. In the middle of it all, there was a picture of a man, a good looking, middle aged man in an expensive, well-tailored suit.</span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Under the pictures, there was a page with detailed information about the man. Will looked at the board and studied it long enough to know every word written on that paper by heart. He could see the words and the images flooding behind his eyelids every time he closed his eyes, he could almost </span> <em><span class="s2">taste </span></em> <span class="s1">them on the back of his tongue.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Hannibal Lecter, </span> <em><span class="s2">Count </span></em> <span class="s1">Hannibal Lecter, born in Lithuania and orphaned at a young age, adopted by his uncle and traveled to Italy, became the Monster of Florence and then to America after he got an internship to study medicine and became the Chesapeake Ripper.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Killed so many people and left them so many cases to deal with that they could never investigate all of them even if they dedicated their whole lives to it. How could a man, a man who looked like </span> <em><span class="s2">this</span></em> <span class="s1">; a doctor, who supposedly dedicated his life to save people’s lives, do </span> <em><span class="s2">these</span></em> <span class="s1">?</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Will Graham was a brave man, his job didn’t exactly give him the luxury to be afraid, a job where he had to chase criminals down and to make sure they got what they deserve. A job where he had to close his eyes and walk through their horrific minds, to see beyond what could be seen.</span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">But there were two things he was genuinely afraid of. One of them was to lose his mind and turn into some sick psychopath like the people they go after every damn day and night of their lives, and the other thing was to walk through </span> <span class="s2"><em>this man’s</em> <em>mind</em></span> <span class="s1">. He wasn’t sure what he would meet with, Hannibal Lecter was a whole another level of evil and twisted, something Will had never seen before.</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Something wicked, yet so masterfully and carefully done.</span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Yet so </span> <em><span class="s2">poetic</span></em> <span class="s1">.</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’What do you say, Will? Are you down?’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He didn’t know when Jack started to talk and when he lost the track of topic and time. He blinked owlishly at him and wetted his lips.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’For what?’’ Jack sighed, shaking his head in knowing disbelief.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">‘’You young people with your minds millions miles away. What do you say we send you out for an undercover mission to lure Lecter out and finally throw him into the pit he deserves to spend the rest of his life in?’’</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Jack took Will’s silence as hesitation, not that he could blame him for being hesitant to get close enough to part a cannibal’s hair. He put an assuring, understanding hand on his shoulder to catch Will’s eyes behind the glasses.</span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">‘’Look, I know how dangerous this is. I wouldn’t even think about choosing you for this mission if I didn’t trust you and your abilities. You’re a very successful, clever and extraordinary man, Will. I can’t think of anyone but </span> <em><span class="s2">you </span></em> <span class="s1">for this. But I wouldn’t be disappointed or angry if you turn this down, Hannibal is a powerful man with a sick mind, he’s not to be joked around.’’</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Will listened very carefully, cataloged all the information he had on the man and analyzed the possible outcomes of this situation.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The task was simple, simple yet dangerous. To get close to Hannibal Lecter, to gain his trust, to get information from him, and finally to gather enough evidence to prove that he is the Chesapeake Ripper. It was easy, at least for a man with gifts and qualities like Will.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Doctor Hannibal Lecter was a prestigious psychiatrist, a former medical doctor and a very talented chef. From the perspective of unpracticed and unknowing eyes, he was nothing but a noble man with a quite elite and powerful circle around him. Even the possibility of that man being a ripper who kills and eats people like a normal person would eat their veggies would never cross anyone’s mind. Anyone’s, but the FBI’s. </span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">The reason why he was the perfect person to send out for this mission was pretty simple. Will Graham was the youngest agent Jack Crawford ever had under his command. And the brightest, the greatest one with an almost too vivid imagination.  The one with the quickest mind and the strongest sense of duty. Young and interesting enough to draw Hannibal’s attention, smart and witty enough to get into his ‘’unusual things’’ list. Most importantly, on the outside, he looked </span> <em><span class="s2">nothing</span></em> <span class="s1"> like a FBI agent.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">You could bump into him at a small coffee shop on a regular afternoon, have a quick little chat with him while you are waiting for your order to be prepared and think he’s just a quirky, charming </span> <em><span class="s2">boy</span></em> <span class="s1">; whose biggest hobby was to sail away to go fishing, just like his father taught him. Who would even guess that he’s an honor graduate of a good college, top of his class at defensive tactics, use of firearms and case exercises in Quantico? Not Hannibal Lecter, apparently.</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Every braincell he owned was screaming at him not to accept this. He might be trained and tactical, they might be in touch with him as much as possible, and the team might provide him with a well thought plan and a backup plan if… things went sideways; but despite everything, this was still so very dangerous.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">They didn’t know what kind of a person Hannibal was. All they could say about him was how precise, lethal and smart he was. They didn’t know his motives or how he was designing the crimes scenes so theatrically, how he was picking his victims or why he was eating them. He’d been going on about his murder affairs for almost a decade at least for all they know, and the man hasn’t made any wrong moves that might give him away and Will was holding out little hope for Hannibal to do a wrong move after this. </span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">But against all the odds, a part of him was begging to get involved in this. Yes, for once in his life Will was afraid of walking through the horrid, dark halls of an experienced and extremely clever psychopath’s mind but there was something magnetic about getting to know the mastermind behind all these. He couldn’t help the irresistible pull he felt towards the man, his eyes lingered on the picture in the middle of the board a bit too long for it to be </span> <em> <span class="s2">appropriate</span> </em> <span class="s1">. There was this thrill of walking right into the danger and the pride of being trusted with such an important mission clouding his sharp judgement. His mouth worked faster than his brain could comprehend the next two words that’s escaped his lips.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"> ‘’</span> <em> <span class="s2">I’m in</span> </em> <span class="s1">.’’</span></p>
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